Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies Faculty of Post Graduate Studies Nguyễn Thị Hiền Hạnh A study of instructions for group work in 2nd year non English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University (Nghiên cứu việc hướng dẫn hoạt động nhóm trong các lớp không chuyên tiếng Anh năm thứ hai tại Đại học Thái Nguyên ) Thesis Summary Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phạm Minh Hiền, M. Hanoi, August 2010 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS TNU: Thai Nguyen University CLT: Communicative Language Teaching LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Teacher’s profiles (Total number of teacher: 9) Table 2: The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions Table 3:The language used for the instructions Table 4: Physical expressions for the instructions Table 5: Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class. Table 6: Students’ opinions on types of group activities they like most Table 7: Reasons for effective instructions Table 8: Favorite ways of forming group work Table 9: Students’ difficulties when following teachers’ instructions.
LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com v TABLE OF CONTENTS Candidate’s statement Acknowledgements Abstract List of abbreviations, tables, figures Table of contents PART ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………. Rationales of the study………………………………………………. Aims and significance of the study …………………………………. Scope of the study……………………………………………………….
Methods of the study………………………………………. Design of the study………………………………………….5 PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT………………………….6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………….1 Communicative language teaching……………………………. An overview of communicative language teaching…………………………. Group work in communicative language teaching ………………………………….1 Concept of group work…………………………………………………….2 Advantages of group work ……………………………………………….3 General strategies for a successful group work…………………………….4 Factors affecting the success of group work…………………………….5 Teacher’s roles in group work…………………………………………….
Teacher’s instructions for a successful group work………………………….1 Teacher’s instructions and its relation to teacher talk………………….2 The definition of teacher’s instructions for group work……………….3 The importance of instructions in organizing group work…………….4 Principles of giving instructions to group work………………………….25 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vi CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY II.2 Data collection instruments………………………………………………………….3 The current situation of English teaching and learning at TNU…………….……29 CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS III.1 The organization and content of the teachers’ instructions….2 The language used for the instructions……………………….3 Physical expressions for the instructions…………………. Observation of the nine classrooms in details…………….1 Students’ opinions on the purpose of using group work in their class….2 Students’ preference for group activities…………………………….3 Reasons for the effectiveness of teacher’s instructions………….4 Teacher’s most favourite group form………………………….5 Difficulties students have experienced when following teacher’s instructions…………………………………………………….1 Teachers’ satisfaction on the lessons observed……………………….2 Teachers’ views on the success and failure of the instructions and their plan for improvement……………………………….2 Discussion on the results…………………………….1 How instructions are used for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms at TNU? …………………………….………………………… 64 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii III. What facilitates and hinders the teachers when giving instructions for group work.3 Cause analysis for the results of the study…………………………….3 Factors concerned with learners…………………………….4 The limited teaching time…………………………….5 Teacher’s awareness toward instructions for group work……………….1 Recommendations to the teachers…………………………….1 Design and select appropriate activities…………………………….2 Suggested group activities with improved instructions……………71 III.3 Rehearse instructions before applying in the classrooms………….4 Give instructions flexibly…………………………….5 Train students group work skills……………………………………74 III.6 Self train to be effective instruction providers…………………….7 Improve body language …………………………………….2 Recommendations to the students……………………………………….1 Be attentive in class……………………………………………….2 Be cooperative with the teacher…………………………………….77 PART THREE: CONCLUSION……………………………………………………78 1. Summary of the study……………………………………………………………78 2.
Limitations and recommendations for further research……………………….79 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaires for students Appendix 2: Classroom checklist for observations Appendix 3: Post- lesson interview questions for teachers LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 1 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationales In recent years, together with the increasing need for English learning, great efforts have been made in order to improve the quality of English teaching. It is certain that teaching English is a complex process involving many complex factors. Since 1960s, the research on classroom discourse has grown rapidly.
Before that, teaching methodology has been explored and an effective teaching method is tried to be found. Since teaching methods do not play a decisive role in language classrooms, the focus has shifted from teaching methods to teacher‟s talk in classroom process, or teacher‟s instructions. Giving instructions is particularly important to language teaching. According to pedagogical theory, instructions that the teacher uses in the classroom determine to a larger degree whether a class will succeed or not since almost all of the classroom activities and teacher‟s help are organized and provided to the students through instructions.
In Vietnam, English has become an international language of communication as well as a compulsory subject at most schools and universities. English proficiency is very necessary for those who want to get a better job or, for the least of it, pass the English exam at the end of their study course. In order to improve the English teaching and learning quality, teachers at Thai Nguyen University, where I work, have been using different techniques, one of which is group work – key features of learner – centered orientation. They believe that group work help to provide their students with more opportunities to exchange their ideas make them more confident and creative in learning and promote their autonomy by allowing them to make their own decisions in the group.
However, many teachers complain that they are facing many challenges in organizing and managing, especially giving instructions for group work. Some teachers A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 2 do not use English frequently and sometimes not confident in their use of the language. Therefore, the effectiveness of their instructions for group work in class may not as high as being expected. Along with a possible lack on the part of teachers to give instructions in English in the classroom, there may also be a reason on the part of class size.
Most of the non-English major classes at Thai Nguyen University are large. Hence, the noise as well as the mixed ability of the students may lead them to an inadequate understanding about the instructions given. Since a better understanding of the teacher‟s instructions for group work can undoubtedly help students successfully fulfill their tasks in the group and certainly improve their learning, it is necessary to do some research on teachers‟ instructions for group work from both theoretical and practical perspective. The author hopes to make a modest contribution to an increased understanding of giving instructions for group work in non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University.
Basing on which group work can be organized in a more effective way to create variety, dynamism, and freshness in the classroom. Aims and significance of the study 2. Aims of the study The study is conducted with a purpose to investigate how instructions are used for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms. Thus, the specific purpose is to provide reality evidence of the use of instructions for group work in 2nd year non- English major classrooms.
In this way, the factors that influence to the effectiveness of an instruction will be clarified so that suggestions for better instructions will be discussed in order to help teachers improve their instructions for group work consciously. Significance of the study The study of teachers‟ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major at Thai Nguyen University (TNU) is significant in three different ways. First to the teachers, they should realize the fact that instructions play the decisive role to the A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 3 success of group work. They are the guiders that provide the students with all necessary information such as time limitation, group size, and detailed tasks assigned to each student.
Therefore, a carefully planned instruction is really needed when organizing a group activity. Similarly, an appropriate procedure is inevitable in giving instructions. In order to help the students fulfill their tasks successfully, the teacher should explain systematically. That means the teacher must have good organizational skills.
In addition to effective instructions, a friendly and co-operative climate should be created so that students feel encouraging and rewarding to study. Furthermore, teacher‟s eye contact and body language are also crucial. When giving instructions, the teacher should bear in mind that they could use gestures such as using fingers to select students or to show the number of members in a group, or use eye contact to warn some noisy students as well as to check their understanding of the instructions. In fact, many teachers have neither the habit of using the body language and eye contact nor the skill to utilize them, so the effectiveness is not high as they expect.
Secondly, the research provides evidence of how instructions are used by teachers at Thai Nguyen University. It also reveals the teachers and students‟ attitudes toward good instructions. Therefore, from the research results, the teacher can decide which techniques and procedure should be used to make effective group activities. Finally, instructions are indispensable to the students in learning.
They may make progress after each lesson if the teachers‟ instructions for the class activities are well organized. Scope of the study It is a fact that teachers have many ways to divide the class into small groups so that students can work together at the same time in an activity. Thus, to limit the scope of the study, the researcher intends to investigate only instructions for activities in which the teacher divides the class into groups of two, three, four or five since they are the common size of group activities in the classroom at Thai Nguyen University. A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 4 Moreover, the respondents of this study are limited to 2nd year non-English majors chosen randomly at TNU, therefore, their opinion about teachers‟ instructions might not be a representative of all students at TNU in particular and students learning English in general.
Research questions As stated in the introduction, the study is designed to seek answers to the following questions: 1. How instructions are used for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms at TNU? 2. What facilitates and hinders the teachers when giving instructions to group work? 3. What recommendations for improvement are needed to make instructions for group work more effective? 5.
Methods of the study In order to examine the situation of the study, the researcher used the following methods: observation checklists for every class of the teachers chosen, post – lesson interviews for the teachers and post lesson questionnaires for the students. The post – lesson interview questions are aimed at obtaining information about the teachers‟ own judgments on their teaching, particularly on the instructions. After each lesson, a questionnaire will be distributed to the students to get information about their evaluation and reasons for their successful or unsuccessful in following the teacher‟s instructions. The author uses questionnaires for this stage because of the fact that they are easy to construct and uniquely capable of gathering a large amount of information quickly in a form that is readily processable (Dornyei, 2003).
Observation of the teachers‟ classes will be carried out over a period of two months to obtain information about their actual teaching practices. Specific episodes of events A study of teachers’ instructions for group work in 2nd year non-English major classrooms at Thai Nguyen University LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com 5 observed during the lesson will be used to generate discussion topics during post – lesson interviews. Design of the study The thesis consists of three main parts. Part I is the introduction in which rationales, aims, significance, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study are presented.